Opinion

Rosen: Evie Hudak payback, then kickback?

State Sen. Evie Hudak, shown in this March 2013 file photo, resigned her seat on Nov. 27.(AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)

Give the power brokers in the state Democratic Party credit for a shrewd political maneuver. By forcing the resignation of Sen. Evie Hudak, they've salvaged — for now — their slim 18-17 majority in the Senate.

Hudak was facing a likely defeat in an imminent recall election, as Sens. John Morse and Angela Giron did before her. This could have led to a Republican victory, tipping the balance of power. With her resignation, under state law, Democrats get to appoint a replacement, who won't face a new election until 2014.

Doug Schepman, spokesman for the Colorado Senate Majority (of Democrats), claimed the decision was entirely Hudak's, that she faced no pressure to resign. If you believe that, you probably believed President Obama's promise that you could keep your health care plan.

Before the arm twisting, Hudak had steadfastly insisted she would fight and defeat the recall attempt. Why the sudden change of heart if she wasn't pressured? Don't be surprised if, after a decent interval, you learn that Hudak has been appointed to a plum government job with a six-figure salary which, incidentally, would spike her PERA retirement benefits, based on one's highest pay as a government employee.

I'm told that a similar deal was offered to Morse before his recall election.

Advertisement

In her official letter of resignation, Hudak claimed to have listened to and reflected the views of her constituents. If that were the case, why should she have feared losing a recall vote? Why wouldn't she stand on principle and her voting record? Hudak, a former teacher, was chair of the powerful Senate Education Committee. Actually, her principal constituency wasn't the voters in her Senate district. It was the teachers unions and the educratic bureaucracy. The recent election tide that defeated Amendment 66 and a number of pro-union school board candidates would likely have swept Hudak away, too.

In 2012, 53 percent of voters in Hudak's Senate District 19 voted against her. She defeated her Republican opponent, Lang Sias, by a mere 584 votes, less than 1 percent, only because a Libertarian candidate diverted 5,100 votes (almost 7 percent), most of which would have presumably gone to Sias if there were no Libertarian in that race.

The liberal narrative is that the Hudak recall was all about hostility toward her by pro-gun activists. That's an oversimplification and only part of what motivated the opposition to Hudak and the other recalled Democrats. The greater issue was overreach by majority Democrats in the legislature on a host of measures in a mad dash to enact their "progressive" wish list on a wholesale basis.

The gun control measures they rammed through were rash, especially the magazine-capacity bill. And none of them — or even the whole collection — can deliver on their delusional promise that this will "prevent" the next school shooting. No legislation can ensure that. This was just an opportunist argument by the anti-gun lobby.

Even worse were the arrogance by Hudak and her fellow Democrats and their abuse of the process in the last legislative session. Their "hearings" on the gun bills were a sham, little more than a perfunctory exercise. Witnesses were given short shrift. The few county sheriffs who were allowed to testify about the shortcomings and unenforceability of the magazine-capacity bill were ignored. Those sheriffs are now challenging that law in court.

During those hearings, Amanda Collins, a young woman who had been raped as a college student, testified in favor of concealed-carry laws, explaining that she could have defended herself with a firearm. Hudak's insensitive treatment of her, both condescending and dismissive, was as misinformed and outrageous as it was boorish. Now, it's payback time.

Freelance columnist Mike Rosen's radio show airs weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon on 850-KOA.

Not all kids who play baseball are uniformed with fancy script across their chests, traveling to $1,000 instructional camps and drilled how to properly hit the cut-off man. Some kids just play to play.